The latest on California politics and government

June 4, 2014

The primary fight in the East Bay's 16th Assembly District consumed millions of dollars, including $4 million in spending by outside groups.

Yet with all precincts reporting early Wednesday, it looks like the fall campaign will be a traditional Republican-vs-Democrat showdown: Republican Catharine Baker of Walnut Creek has the top spot, and Democrat Tim Sbranti of Dublin has more than a 4,000-vote advantage over Democrat Steve Glazer for the No. 2 spot, 17,270 to 13,137.

Glazer, an Orinda councilman and adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown, and Sbranti, a teacher and Dublin mayor, trashed each other during a months-long campaign that featured heavy spending by unions lining up behind Sbranti and business groups and charter schools backing Glazer.

A Baker-Sbranti matchup could be competitive. Democrats hold a seven-point registration edge in the district, but almost 22 percent of voters have no-party preference. Republicans viewed Sbranti as their preferred fall opponent.

Here is the latest from Sacramento-area congressional and legislative contests. Other interesting finishes in primaries around the state Tuesday...

Assembly

44th Assembly District: Democrat Jacqui Irwin will go up against Republican Rob McCoy in the fall after a primary race that saw business-backed outside groups spend heavily in a failed bid to get Mario De La Piedra into the runoff for this seat now held by Republican Jeff Gorell.

Senate

10th Senate District
Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, clinched the top spot in this strongly Democratic district, with Republican Peter Kuo leading former lawmaker Mary Hayashi, a Democrat, by more than 3,000 votes for second place. Wieckowski and Hayashi, and allied groups, spent months and hundreds of thousands of dollars bashing each other.

26th Senate District
Democrats Ben Allen and Sandra Fluke will face off in the fall following an eight-person primary race. Former lawmaker Betsy Butler was in fourth place in her bid to restart her legislative career.

28th Senate District
Four candidates – three Republicans and one Democrat – are within three percentage points of each other. Republican Jeff Stone has a slight lead, with less than 300 votes separating Republicans Glenn Miller and Bonnie Garcia and Democrat Philip Drucker.

Congress

17th Congressional District
Rep. Mike Honda and fellow Democrat Ro Khanna will continue their old-vs.-new battle into November after a bitter primary fight.

25th Congressional District
Democrats posted a strong showing against longtime Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon in this Southern California district in 2012. Now they won't even have a candidate on the fall ballot to succeed the retiring McKeon. Former lawmaker Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, and state Sen. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, clinched the top-two spots, with Democrat Lee Rodgers several percentage points behind.

31st Congressional District
Democrats are biting their nails this morning, anxious to avoid a CD-25 scenario and a repeat of their June 2012 debacle in this Democrat-leaning district. Republican Paul Chabot and Democrat Pete Aguilar held the top slots but Republican Leslie Gooch is less than 400 votes behind Aguilar.

33rd Congressional District
Republican Elan Carr and state Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, will face off in November in this strongly Democratic Santa Monica-centered district after an 18-person scrum to succeed the retiring Rep. Henry Waxman.

PHOTO: Assembly candidate Steve Glazer, right, walks with Gov. Jerry Brown, at a meeting with the League of California Cities on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011 in Sacramento.